Company's books. He need hardly say it | pected anything of it. Amid shouts of had been their earnest desire to press as lightly on the contributories as practicable, but mature deliberation had forced them to the conclusion that 67. per share was the lowest figure which would meet the exigencies of the occasion. If payments were prompt and general, he would venture to hazard a personal opinion it must be distinctly understood he committed himself to nothing further that the shareholders might dismiss from their minds any apprehensions of further liability.

good works, all swamped in the Crédit Foncier, and he was profoundly moved against those who had robbed him of his painfully-garnered stores. So it was with curiously blended feelings he rose to address the meeting; a straw would have turned the torrent of his words one way or the other. He laboured, moreover, under a sense of awkwardness, from which lashing himself into a passion appeared the readiest means of extraction. Standing in that shattered temple of Mammon, the sinner was in the ascendant for the time, and the chances were he would sorely buffet the saint, and leave him with ample matter for repentance.

66 Hear, hear!" Reynardson!" "Dr. Reynardson!" he deliberately raised himself to his legs. Although the Doctor had an impetuous not to say evil- temper, one which had been so constant a snare to him, that at last he had come to let it trip him up when it pleased with the passive resignation of a martyr, yet he was largely gifted with intelligence and common sense. He was conscious his philippic on the former occasion had hurt himself much more than Childersleigh, and, so far, he sincerely Mr. Auditt resuming his seat was the sig- regretted it. Besides, no man had a more nal for a score of excited orators bounding religious respect for dignitaries, and he reto their feet. For three-quarters of an hour pented having invited the thrusts and enthere was nothing but abuse, lamentation, mity of a man in the position of Rushbrook. and recrimination, varied by questions But, then, he had seen the fruits of a lifewhere the general ignorance of business time consecrated to sacred eloquence and evinced by the querists was only surpassed by the special innocence of facts exhibited by the professional respondents. At last Lord Rushbrook seized the ears of the meeting. His Lordship reminded them that on the last occasion on which he had had the honour of addressing them, he had failed in an attempt to persuade them that a motion urged by a reverend gentleman,— he was happy to see him present, had been illadvised and wholly uncalled for. He believed, in fact, he had even ventured to denounce it as a gross and gratuitous insult to his near relative, their late Governor, who, he was glad to say, was also with them upon this occasion to speak for himself. The motion of submitting the conduct, and consequent liability, of Mr. Childersleigh for the opinion of council had been carried, and it would be satisfactory to himself, and doubtless to the shareholders, to learn its result from the reverend gentleman, who had been chairman of the committee he had moved for. If that opinion were of the tenor he had been given to understand it was, he was quite sure no one would rejoice more at the opportunity of proclaiming it than the reverend gentleman himself. Dr. Silke Reynardson's own professions must have convinced them that, next to Mr. Childersleigh and Mr. Childersleigh's immediate friends, he had suffered more intensely than any one from the language only an imperative sense of duty could have driven him to employ, and that he would feel a pleasure equally intense in availing himself of this public opportunity of retracting it.

His lordship only did him justice, said Dr. Reynardson, in giving him credit for having suffered more keenly than any of his listeners while he discharged the most painful duty he had ever been driven to. Whereupon even Childersleigh smiled, while as for Rushbrook, when he composed himself comfortably for the expected treat, his face expressed appreciation, amounting to enjoyment. Other gentlemen looked or whispered in a similar sense; and Dr. Reynardson, feeling that in his noble nature he had soared high above the sympathies of his audience, came tumbling back to the earth, and cast himself savagely into the clutches of the powers of passion and evil.

But his lordship was egregiously in error, he proceeded, in assuming it to be his desire or intention to retract one word he had uttered then. His words had been too conscientiously weighed to be lightly withdrawn. On a single point he had erred, and he was not ashamed to confess it. He If Dr. Reynardson felt the pleasure his was a clergyman, and no lawyer, untrained lordship credited him with, he must have to split hairs and catch at words, to sever had his countenance in better command than equity from justice, and separate the laws his tongue; certainly none of the numerous of conscience and morals from those of St. gentlemen who turned to regard him sus-Stephen's and the statue-book. It was his

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desire to revere the law and respect its in- | to it by representations strangely belied by terpreters, and he had fondly trusted that results, transforms himself in two brief for flagrant wrong the law had fitting rem- years from a pauper to a millionnaire, and edy. That illusion was dispelled. In the finally slips like a rat from the house he interest of the widow and the orphan, of has too good reason to know is falling. the desolate hearth and the shivered roof-Gentlemen, it would appear that we cannot tree, he had urged that Mr. Childersleigh's drag our Governor to the bar of justice, or clear moral responsibility -ay, he repeated invoke the civil power to compel him to it boldly to his face, as he had said it hon- the surrender of his gains. Yet something estly behind his back. that Mr. Childers- we can do we can force him before that leigh's moral liability should be enforced by tribunal of social opinion, which holds the the machinery of justice. If that machinery issues of life or death for men like him. were not radically defective, it had lament- We can poison the enjoyment of his wealth ably broken down. The counsel they had which has been to him swelled by the mites consulted-eminent, he believed, they of the widow, steeped in the tears of the were considered had given it as their orphan; and I, for one, solemnly pledge opinion that the late Governor, sheltered myself to uplift my humble testimony in behind a rampart of technicalities, might my lowly sphere until trials and sorrows enjoy as best he could the riches he had shall stifle my feeble accents." filched.

"May I ask the rev. gentleman if he quotes the precise language of the opinion? interposed Rushbrook. Or if it is brief, as I am given to understand it is, perhaps he will forgive me if I request him to read it."

The rev. gentleman seemed strangely loth to gratify this reasonable request, but the feeling of the meeting was unmistakable. The opinion, signed by her Majesty's Solicitor-General and a learned brother, was clear and concise: "On the statement submitted, we are of opinion that no action whatever can lie against Mr. Childersleigh."

"I have to apologize sincerely for having troubled the rev. gentleman," resumed Lord Rushbrook, blandly; "his singularly candid rendering of the sense and scope of the document in question ought to have satisfied me."

In one way or another, the clergyman's peroration brought down the house. There were indignant utterances indeed, but they were rare, and while a good many of his auditors sat silent and doubtful, a great number applauded vociferously. Some of the more sensitive had dissolved in tears, and regarded Rushbrook, who was evidently in a most enviable state of enjoyment, as a mocking Mephistopheles.

Dr. Reynardson had thrown down the glove, and Hugh hastened to take it up. The violent personal attack had given him the opportunity for personal explanation; he felt his advantage and meant to use it. The champion of the sufferers had hit hard, yet the spirit of fair-play was general enough to assure him a more patient hearing than he could otherwise have hoped for, and the mass of the audience forgot, for a moment, the disagreeables of their situation in the interest always excited by a fair stand-up fight. As Hugh rose before him, with head slightly thrown back, and kindling eye that swept the room, the Doctor was troubled by some inward qualms, and glanced uneasily from the Governor to the reporters. He knew he had laid himself terribly open.

"To return to where I broke off when the noble lord interrupted me," resumed Dr. Reynardson in some confusion, and with a look of poison. "I was referring to the wealth his honourable relative, the Chairman, had gathered in our service, I will not say from our pockets, although the system of commission by which he enriched So far as his fears went of having viohimself seems to me little better than legal- lence met with violence, and personalities ized pilfering. I am satisfied to waive all retorted with personal sarcasm, he might allusion to the colourable suspicions engen- have spared them. If Hugh was tempted dered by his close friendship with our he refrained, although his reply was perworthy Manager, although they are enter- haps none the less telling for its studied tained, as I have reason to know, by many moderation. Lightly touching on the tone, of the most intelligent of our body. I will be thanked his assailant with dignity for content myself with asking whether your verdict endorses that of the lawyers, whether it argues unblemished honour, or does not rather imply some slight degree of moral turpitude, when a man founds a Company like this, courts public confidence VOL. XIX. 836

LIVING AGE.

the matter of the remarks which gave him an opening he had ardently longed for; which cheered him with the hope of freeing his mind from the weight which had long oppressed it. He had laboured hard to deserve their good opinion, and the feeling

66

that he had lost it, however innocently, had yet let me remind you that it was you who been, he owned to them, very painful. ratified the one and the other, and let me He had suffered deeply from the knowledge assure you, laying my hand on my heart, that his profound sympathy with their that self-interest, if I know myself, never misfortunes was suspected, that there were influenced me in any of the transactions I circumstances that gave some faint colour arranged on your behalf. The highest legal to the dishonouring accusations that had authorities have told you in the plainest been launched at him. Of these, Dr. Rey- terms, that what I have gained I gained nardson had no doubt conscientiously made honestly." (Murmurs and expressions of himself the exponent, and he repeated he had dissent.) Gentlemen, I claim a patient reason to be grateful to him. The expres- hearing as a right, and I am assured you sions of dissent elicited by so many passages will not deny it. They have decided it was of Dr. Reynardson's speech had assured him gained honestly, and for myself I will venhe could still count on friends among those ture to add honourably, as well. In brief, he had the pleasure of knowing neither by gentlemen, the sole points on which I am sight nor name; that there were members of disposed to reproach myself arise from my their body who still refused to believe he connection with our defaulting Manager. would lightly stain a stainless name or belie That connection, from first to last, was a the conduct of a lifetime. In consenting to purely business one. Yet, while I disdefend himself he felt something of the hu-tinctly repudiate any responsibility for that miliation of pleading guilty, but he would pray of them to suspend, as a body, the judgment some of them might have hastily passed; to strive to imagine that the relation which had once existed between them was yet unchanged, to let him believe them still his friends, while he addressed them with perfect candour. If they condemned him when they had heard him to an end, he could not say he would bow to their sentence, but, acquitted by his conscience, he would bear it as best he might.

unhappy man, I do feel that in the eyes of the public our connection may well have appeared closer than it was; that such reputation as I possessed may have plausibly been made to stand guarantee for his. Latterly, indeed, I had to a certain extent withdrawn my confidence from him, and done my best to limit his exercise of power; but in that, I must add, I was guided merely by suspicion which might well have been prejudice, and I was in possession of no tangible facts which would have justified He would ask them, to begin with, was me in bringing the matter officially before there a conceivable motive for his risking your Board. Still, enlightened after the himself in questionable transactions? He events and after the unfortunate chances had made a large fortune by their Com-which prolonged my absence, and although pany; he was wealthy still; and, as he was a Chairman, with an able body of coadjuunbosoming himself, he would tell them he could look forward with reasonable certainty to inheriting a great succession in a few weeks' time. (Here there was a general murmur, and even Hugh's friends looked blank. He had been candid with a vengeance, and now actually touched on the very point that had stirred the bitterest animosity.) "I have alluded advisedly to the subject of the money I have gained by you, and intend, with your permission, to return to it; in the meantime let me defend the means by which I have made and kept it."

Then he took up charge after charge with a detail into which we shall not follow him; but, although he spoke not unsuccessfully to their reason, their hearts were effectually closed to him by the wealth he acknowledged to have saved from the common wreck.

He went on: "You have discovered, gentlemen, that the system of remuneration by commission was a mistake, and my share of it an exorbitant one. Possibly;

tors and an efficient staff of subordinates, might well consider a few days of relaxation fairly earned by months of painfully assiduous application; still, I say, enlightened after the event, I shall never cease to reproach myself with that absence as the indirect cause of the ruin of a noble business. Upon my heart and conscience that I hold to be the head and front of my offending, and for that I stand here willing to make the extreme compensation the law could have exacted of me had I been criminal ten times over. I cannot absolutely promise to spare you entirely the painful necessity of a call, for my means may be scarcely equal to my will. But what I can do I will, and I intimate my intention of sealing my unwavering devotion to your interests by an immediate transfer to your liquidators of my entire property real and personal. With the exception of family pictures, and a few heirlooms I shall beg permission to select, I pledge myself the cession shall be absolute. And now, gentlemen, may I express a hope

that we part on terms at least as friendly as those on which we began our unfortunate acquaintance, and may I take leave of the Credit Foncier in the belief that I have convinced you of the integrity of my conduct and the purity of my motives ?"

perhaps not sorry at heart to think he might be spared the worst of the sacrifice.

But Dr. Silke Reynardson stood before them again. With heartfelt satisfaction he had listened to the speech of a man he was proud again to entitle his honourable friend, and, imitating Mr. Childersleigh's frankness, he begged to retract every word that, under erroneous impressions, he had felt it his duty to utter to his disparagement. As they had seen in the generous nobility of his nature, Mr. Childersleigh had been obviously eager to disclaim the well-inten

So thoroughly was the meeting stunned by the startling climax of the Governor's speech that, for a space, they sat gaping on him and each other open-mouthed, as if questioning whether their ears had played them false. Then their feelings vented themselves in Protean variety of form. There was cheering and waving of hats. tioned but he would say it- the most illpounding of feet and umbrella-ferules, advised interference of his colleague, Mr. weeping, blessing, praying, and swearing McAlpine. He would venture to interpret that the Governor was something greater Mr. Childersleigh's mind, and implore of ⚫ than the divinity they had always taken him them, in Mr. Childersleigh's name, not to for. The peroration of Hugh's speech was dim the lustre of a grand sacrifice. Mr. well worth that of Dr. Reynardson. Some Childersleigh had freely offered them his of the more suspicious and saturnine shook family place, and for Mr. Childersleigh's their heads; they would greatly like to see own sake, he would entreat of them as the deeds executed that should give effect freely to accept it. (Cries of "No, no," to the eloquent orator's intentions; to be -"hear, hear.") He was sure they could persuaded of the existence of the property not misjudge his motives, and he would rebe so generously transferred; and although call to them the statement of Mr. McAlpine his speech had otherwise sounded rational that the estate was so heavily burdened enough, they were much inclined to share as to reduce its value to a minimum — a Lord Hestercombe's doubts as to his sanity. Rushbrook and McAlpine seized him by either arm and dinned remonstrances into his ears. Too late, altogether too late, my good fellows," was the reply; and don't forget I gave you an opportunity of arguing me out of my intention."

"A wilful man will have his way," moaned McAlpine, feeling he might just as well attempt to move the pillar behind him, and acknowledging, moreover, that Hugh was irretrievably committed by his speech. "But you must let your friends do what they can for you in spite of yourself;" and with that he sprang to his feet and addressed a stirring appeal to the meeting. Mr. Childersleigh had taken a course of absolutely unparalleled generosity, and beggared himself—yes beggared himself-in obedience to the dictates of an over-sensitive honour, and, in answer to reproaches which his conscience told him were utterly unjust. Were they to take a paltry advantage of him, and clutch at the uttermost farthing he offered? He pled earnestly for the old place that had been in the Childersleigh family for centuries. Mortgaged as it was, the difference would be little to them although immense to the owner; and he concluded with a motion that it, at least, should be left him. Hugh would have risen again, but his friends almost angrily insisted he was out of court in the matter, and literally forced him to keep his seat

reason the more, he must remark in passing, for hesitating to impose on Mr. Childersleigh the costly burden of maintaining it. (Expressions of dissent and disapprobation.) But one other word, and he had done. If he were rightly informed of circumstances only known to him by hearsay, Mr. Childersleigh might be entitled in a few weeks to claim a valuable property upon certain conditions. Might he put it to Mr. Childersleigh whether, in the interest of the shareholders, he would not see it his duty to make good his claim to that property previous to executing to them a transfer of the whole ? (An emphatic "No" from Mr. Childersleigh.) Then he would not press that delicate point, but he would conclude with an amendment to Mr. McAlpine's motion-"That this meeting accept with cordial gratitude the liberal proposals of their late Governor, and desire to enter on their minutes an expression of their profound esteem for his character and conduct."

Rushbrook was whetting the razors of his sarcasm when McAlpine stopped him.

“Trust me, the best way of disposing of that is to leave it to the vote; better they should condemn that scoundrel Reynardson than you. I see, Budger seconds himand just like him; but they'll scarcely find a third man to go along with them."

The worthy chieftain had hardly calculated on the feelings of impoverished share

holders dreading a farther drain on their | Why should they? If you may have to pockets, voting practically anonymously enrough it soon on half rations, it is surely a bloc, and encouraging themselves by mutual reason for making yourself comfortable example and kindred sentiment. The show while you may. So you have heard of the of hands was clearly in favour of the amend- folly I perpetrated." Ι ment, as the liquidator reluctantly announced. McAlpine impetuously demanded a vote, but there Childersleigh insisted on interfering. He regretted much the proposal had ever been suggested to the meeting at least, he would not stoop to have it pressed on them.